Fighting is continuing in Sudan's war-torn Darfur province, where rebels are trying to take a government-held town, the UN says. The clashes have prompted aid agencies to pull out of the area around Golo. The US has condemned the rebel attacks. One of the Sudanese aid workers being evacuated was killed on Wednesday when a UN helicopter crashed. More than two million people have been forced from their homes and at least 180,000 have died in the conflict. "Fighting is still continuing with heavy weapons" in the West Darfur town of Golo, said UN spokeswoman Radhia Achouri. She urged all sides to cease hostilities. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk

Mexico will suspend its plan to distribute maps to migrants wanting to cross the U.S. border illegally, but an official said Thursday the decision was not made because of American pressure. Miguel Angel Paredes, spokesman for the federal Human Rights Commission, said the decision was made because human rights officials in border states expressed concern that the maps would show anti-immigrant groups where migrants likely would gather. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1544369

The 700 tons of U.S. beef distributed in Japan after the country eased its import ban last month is safe and can be eaten with no worries, Japan's agriculture minister said Thursday.Shoichi Nakagawa told parliament the meat was closely checked for banned material such as bone and brains when it entered the country. Japan halted imports again last week after it found banned spinal bones in a shipment of American veal.Nakagawa said about 1,500 tons of U.S. beef has entered Japan since the easing of a two-year-old ban on Dec. 12. The ban was imposed in 2003 after the discovery of mad cow disease in an American herd.Of those 1,500 tons, more than 700 tons have already been distributed to supermarkets, restaurants and other outlets, but Nakagawa said that meat posed no health risk....http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-01-26-japan-us-beef_x.htm?csp=34

The Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas, which has said it favors the destruction of Israel, won an apparent victory in Palestinian legislative elections, officials said Thursday, reshaping the political landscape of the Middle East."We have lost the elections; Hamas has won," said Saeb Erakat, a Palestinian lawmaker with the ruling Fatah Party. He said Fatah, which has held power since the creation of the Palestinian Authority, will now be the opposition.During a White House news conference Thursday, President Bush said he would not deal with Hamas unless it renounced terrorism. (Watch Bush face tough questioning -- 5:37)"I've made it very clear that the United States does not support political parties that want to destroy our ally Israel, and that people must renounce that part of their platform," Bush said. ...http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/01/26/palestinian.election/index.html?section=cnn_world

A planet similar to Earth has been found orbiting a distant star by astronomers who believe they are getting closer to discovering an alien world inhabited by extraterrestrial life. The new planet is five times the size of Earth but is itself unlikely to harbour life because it is probably covered in frozen oceans with average temperatures of around minus 220C.However, the scientists behind the discovery believe the find marks a breakthrough in the search for relatively small, rocky planets such as Earth where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for life.The scientists said that the discovery showed it was technically possible to discover a planet in a temperate "habitable zone" around a far-away sun that would permit the existence of liquid water, which is believed to be necessary for life....http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article341043.ece

AN AUDIT of US reconstruction spending in Iraq has uncovered spectacular misuse of tens of millions of dollars in cash, including bundles of money stashed in filing cabinets, a US soldier who gambled away thousands and stacks of newly minted notes distributed without receipts. The audit, released yesterday by the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, describes a country in the months after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein awash with dollars, and a Wild West atmosphere where even multimillion-dollar contracts were paid for in cash. The findings come after a report last year by the inspector general which stated that nearly $9 billion of Iraq’s oil revenue disbursed by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which governed Iraq until mid-2004, cannot be accounted for. The huge sums in cash were paid out with little or no supervision, and often without any paperwork, yesterday’s audit found. The report found problems with nearly 2,000 contracts worth $88.1 million...http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-2010424,00.html